I am the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,000 consumer electronics companies, and author of the New York Times best-selling books, Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World's Most Successful Businesses and The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream. Views are my own. Connect with me on Twitter: @GaryShapiro.

4/13/2011 @ 11:48AM1,016 views

Destination: USA

As President Obama visited Brazil last month, Brazilian TV ran a story on how difficult it is to get a visa to visit the United States. Some of the complaints from Brazilians on the process ranged from: having to wait several hours in line; traveling hundreds of miles to visit the consulate; the hassle of an interview; and the added burden of paying a large fee.

Given that those waiting weren’t even guaranteed a visa after jumping through these bureaucratic hoops, it is no wonder that travel to the United States grew at an anemic one percent from 2006 to 2010.

In fact, according to the U.S. Travel Association (U.S. Travel), had travel to the United States kept pace with the rest of the world, 78 million more travelers would have visited, adding a total of $606 billion to our economy that could support more than 467,000 additional U.S. jobs.

With the nation’s attention focused on the budget debate last week, few noticed the testimony of my counterpart at the U.S. Travel Association, President and CEO Roger Dow, in the Senate Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Control. While the budget debate has oscillated between spending cuts and tax increases, the option of actually growing the economy has received scant attention.

But as Mr. Dow indicated in his testimony, attracting international travelers to the United States is a direct form of economic growth, which boosts our economy, creates jobs and adds tax revenue.

“International travel is already America’s largest export, representing 8.7 percent of U.S. exports of goods and services in 2010 and nearly one-fourth of services exports alone,” said Mr. Dow. “The travel industry’s $134.4 billion in exports contributed more than any other industry to America’s $1.8 trillion worth of total goods and services exports.”

Simply as a national strategy, we need to encourage more international travel to the United States. It’s not only tourists we need. Business travelers who come to events and meetings in the United States, like the International CES, the world’s largest technology trade show that the Consumer Electronics Association owns and produces each year in Las Vegas, are more likely to buy from U.S. companies than our competitors. Indeed, a big Midwestern equipment maker is not even in the game against its European competition if potential overseas customers face obstacles visiting the United States to see the product or receive training.

The good news for American taxpayers is that increasing travel to the United States won’t cost them a dime. It’s simply a matter of easing the process for overseas visitors. Last year, Congress made good progress on this front by passing the Travel Promotion Act, which created a public-private partnership to explain U.S. travel and security policies and welcome more visitors to the United States. Best of all, the new program is financed by industry and visitor fees, not taxpayer dollars.

But more can be done. The U.S. visa system is the single biggest obstacle in attracting more international tourists. The average wait time in some countries for obtaining a U.S. visa is 100 days. If that’s not enough to discourage a potential business traveler, then what about the $140 non-refundable visa application fee?

One way to easily expedite the visa process is to add Brazil, Chile, Poland and other countries to the Visa Waiver Program. This successful program already in place with 36 other countries allows reciprocal travel without requiring visas. To qualify for the program, countries must meet strict security criteria, such as information-sharing agreements, travel document standards and law enforcement cooperation.

Another obstacle limiting U.S. tourism is simply the hassle of our customs and security screening. These procedures are necessary to keep us safe, but we have the ability to identify low-risk travelers. U.S. Travel recommends expanding our Trusted Traveler Programs, which expedites travel for pre-approved, low-risk travelers.

Finally, we need to beef up U.S. embassy personnel in visa countries such as China and Brazil to cut the 100-day waiting time and multi-hour visa application lines. Part of the problem is that consular officers are simply overworked. Congress should look into solutions that reassign officers from low-activity consulates to high-activity consulates, as well as hire more officers.

As we confront our economic and budgetary problems, we should be looking at innovative solutions to grow the U.S. economy. The amount of money the United States has left on the tourism table in the past decade should be enough to convince Congress that we need to shift course and entice rather than repel this huge source of jobs and revenue.

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